1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a weight plate adapted to be selectively coupled to the center post of physical fitness weightlifting equipment so that one or more weight plates may be lifted by the center post during a body-building exercise. The weight plate includes a locking cartridge having a curved fork that is carried by a rotatable toggle lever switch arm and moved between locked and unlocked positions within a channel through the weight plate body so that the weight plate can be either coupled to or decoupled from the center post.
2. Background Art
My U.S. Pat. No. 7,608,021 issued Oct. 27, 2009 discloses a weight plate that is associated with weight lifting equipment by which the weight plate or a stack of weight plates can be lifted during a body building exercise. This weight plate includes a plate body and a locking cartridge connected to the plate body. The displacement of a locking pin through the weight plate body is controlled by a manually-accessible toggle lever arm that is located within the locking cartridge and coupled to the locking pin. When the toggle lever arm is rotated to an on or locked position, the locking pin is correspondingly caused to slide in a first direction through the plate body to engage a connection union mounted in an adjacent weight plate. When the toggle lever arm is rotated to an off or unlocked position, the locking pin is caused to slide in an opposite direction through the plate body to be disengaged from the connection union.
It would be desirable to take advantage of my previously-patented weight plate and the locking cartridge thereof so that the weight plate can be selectively and releasably attached to a conventional center post or to a modified connecting union (i.e., insert) that is associated with weightlifting equipment so that the weight plate can be lifted with a stack of similarly-attached weight plates during a body building exercise. In particular, it would be desirable to achieve the aforementioned benefit, but without including the use of a separate locking pin that slides through the locking cartridge to engage with or disengage from a connecting union as a toggle lever arm is rotated.